2000-04-18 04:00:00 PDT San Francisco -- San Francisco must consider a drastic plan to build underground toll roads along three major crosstown routes if it hopes to fix its traffic mess, transportation planners said yesterday.

They said the city should look into building "supercorridor" roads under Van Ness Avenue, 19th Avenue, and Fell and Oak streets. The tunnels would handle the through traffic that makes those streets virtual freeways today.

The surface level of the roads would be restricted to local traffic, the Municipal Railway and other transit vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians, who would enjoy wider sidewalks, trees and benches.

"These programs are controversial, but one conclusion of the transportation plan is that San Francisco must consider new ideas for solving transportation problems," said the report prepared by planners for the Transportation Authority. "The status quo cannot meet current or projected demand."

The idea for subterranean tollways would call on private companies to bid on city franchises to build and operate the roads. Automatic toll collection systems would be used, and the projects would be financed with toll revenue.

The draft did not give any estimates of costs for building the roads or of how high tolls would have to be to pay for them. But it stressed that even if the city undertook its suggested studies, it would be years before construction would begin. The draft itself is still undergoing public comment and has a long way to go before it becomes policy.

SCOPE OF PROJECT AMBITIOUS

The proposals contained in the report are ambitious. The suggested 19th Avenue tunnel would run five miles, from Junipero Serra Boulevard through Golden Gate Park and up to Lake Street, with exits at Brotherhood Way, Ocean Avenue, Quintara Street, Lincoln Way and Geary Boulevard.

The Van Ness tunnel would run almost two miles, from about Fell to Lombard Street, with exits at Broadway and Geary Boulevard.

Along Oak and Fell, the planners suggest an underground road running more than half a mile from Laguna to Divisadero streets.

In a city where the suggestion of anything resembling freeways is sure to stir bitter debate, the planners said their entire idea is to improve traffic flow and to take back the streets for San Franciscans.

"They (the new roads) would provide a relatively fast and direct route between two points," the report said. "This would help everyone but would provide real benefits for regional travel and goods movement.

"More importantly, they would enable San Francisco to reclaim our streets and use them to speed up Muni service and improve neighborhood livability by taking traffic off the surface streets," the draft report said.

Paris and Singapore were cited in the report as two cities that have already built underground roads to take some of the pressure off city streets. Supervisor Barbara Kaufman pointed to Chicago and its Wacker Drive as another example for San Francisco to emulate.

KAUFMAN ENTHUSIASTIC

"I think the supercorridor idea is one of the most brilliant, most creative ideas ever proposed," she said at yesterday's Transportation Authority hearing. "In Chicago, it really works."

Wacker, frequently used in movie chases, runs along the west and north sides of downtown, near the Chicago River.

Kaufman said the idea is nothing like Boston's much-maligned "Big Dig," a multibillion-dollar project, way over budget, to put interstate freeways and local roads underground. For one thing, the authority here wants to study private financing, she said.

She was especially enthusiastic about the idea to drill a tunnel under 19th Avenue, a road lined with homes that is also the main thoroughfare between San Mateo County and the Golden Gate Bridge as part of state Highway 1.

"Lots of people using it now would go underground," Kaufman said. "It would help to unclog the streets."

AMMIANO COOL TO IDEA

Supervisor Tom Ammiano, however, said the idea of building big roads that would charge tolls was a bad one, regardless of whether they were above or below ground.

"We should learn some lessons from the Big Dig in Boston: Massive, car-oriented public works projects like this have much greater neighborhood impacts than expected and typically run way over budget," Ammiano said.

"San Francisco, home to the freeway revolt, shouldn't become home to an extensive toll-road network," he added. That revolt was inspired in part by 1950s plans to lace the city with underground freeways.

Ammiano also said the new roads would violate the long-standing general plan for San Francisco, which calls for no new highway capacity.

The toll road suggestion was just one of scores contained in the plan to deal with forecasts of increased congestion. Other proposals include more money for Muni vehicles and infrastructure and new express bus service to link regional transit centers with attractions like Golden Gate Park and Fisherman's Wharf, and with nightclub districts like North Beach and South of Market.

Also among the ideas is the notion of creating neighborhood centers where delivery services could drop items off for residents.